People are increasingly choosing to drink less but drink better, which makes finding the right choice more important than ever.

My job is to give people confidence when they’re choosing a beer. This could be deciding what to drink at the bar, or picking what to have with a meal, or knowing what to recommend to a customer in need of guidance.

I introduce people to beer styles and teach them to find and recognise the flavours they love.

Who needs champagne when you have gueuze?

Beer Flavour Wheel

If you’ve ever struggled to describe what it is you’re tasting in your beer, this might help. This beer flavour wheel groups the most commonly found flavours in beer together and guides you to describe them with more precision as you go from the centre to the outer edge.

Do you know your beer’s recommended serving temperature?

Some people like their beer cold. It’s how beer drinkers have been taught to enjoy our brews for years. This is particularly true if you prefer a lager. But did you know that the colder your beer is the less you can detect its flavour and aroma? Other people like theirs a bit warmer. But…

Does beer make you fat?

I was already drinking beer fairly regularly before I started my training as a Beer Sommelier. Then I looked at the huge variety of beer styles I was going to have to become familiar with, and quickly realised I was going to have drink an awful lot more. (I know. Poor me.) A thought came…

Goose Island Bourbon County Stout: the beer that laid the golden egg

Black Friday isn’t a thing in the UK. It’s an American import that, like Oreos, is gaining popularity despite the fact that it adds very little of cultural value to the already perfectly good deal we have going on over here thank you very much. But capitalists gotta capital, and so it goes on and we…

Kriek overload: drowning in cherry beer to find you the best one

I have always loved cherries. It’s one of my favourite flavours, so it’s no surprise that I’m also a big fan of kriek, the Belgian cherry beer. I inadvertently started amassing an army of bottles of the stuff early last year. I’d buy one and stick it in the cupboard, thinking to drink it at…